Rain to lash Delhi in a few days

NEW DELHI: Get set for another spell of heavy showers in the capital. The Met department has predicted widespread heavy rain over the plains of northwest India between Friday and Saturday, "similar in intensity" as the record-breaking rainfall seen over February 5 and 6.

Dr O P Singh, deputy director general, meteorology, Regional Met Centre New Delhi, said: "Yet another active western disturbance (WD) is likely to affect northwest India between February 14 and 17. The effect of this WD will be more pronounced over Delhi and adjoining states and its impact will not be very severe over the hilly regions. It will cause moderate snowfall at many places with isolated heavy snowfall over Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during this period," he said.

The official added that fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy showers will also occur over Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, northern Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh during February 15 and 16.

The activity will peak between the night of February 15 and night of February 16. Thunder squall accompanied by hailstorm may occur at one or two places in the region," said Singh.

Met officials said that once the WD moves eastwards, the minimum temperature over the plains will fall significantly and lead to moderate to dense fog over the region for two to three days after February 18.

"The WDs over northwest India during February 2013 have been very active. The last WD that affected northwest India during February 4 to 6 produced widespread rain and snowfall over the region. It accounted for more than normal precipitation expected in the month of February at most places, including Delhi and Lucknow," said a Met official.

This was the highest recorded in a single day since 1942. If the coming WD is as strong, the city may well also break the record of the highest rainfall in the month. The highest before this year was 76.2mm in 2007. In 1915, the city recorded its highest ever rainfall in the month of February with 153.4mm.

The plains have been witnessing extremely pleasant weather for the past four to five days. On Monday, Delhi's maximum temperature was 23.8 degrees Celsius, one degree above normal, while the minimum was 8.5 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal.

The maximum ranged between 21.2 degrees at Mungeshpur and 24.2 degrees at Palam. The lowest temperature in the city was recorded at Narela, which saw a low of 5.5 degrees Celsius, while Delhi University saw the highest minimum of 10. 2 degrees Celsius.